Hey Joe...

Where ya goin' with that healthcare lobbyist's money in your hand?

Nice ad... Joe needs a nice warm cup of shut the buck up.

Harman: "Help Build My Defense Against Prosecution!"

What do you really think she really meant when Jane Harman was demanding all of the tapes be released to her?

Harman: "Bring It On"

In a MSNBC appearance moments ago, Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) gave a strong denial that she in any way intervened in the AIPAC case or sought to make a deal to intervene in return for support for her becoming chair of the intel committee.

--David Kurtz

Trying to turn yourself into a victim of illegal spying is not going to change the fact that you are busted.

Also, AIPAC is not an advocacy group. They are a faux political arm spying on our country and helping American neoconservative traitors in a coordinated effort to spread propaganda for a foreign countries' interests.

The indictment of the two senior AIPAC staffers follows the indictment in may of Feith's footpad Larry Franklin. Franklin worked in the Office of Special Plans, run by then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, who reported to then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. The OSP functioned as a "shadow" intelligence service on Iraq, and provided much of the information to the White House that was used to justify the American invasion of Iraq. Some wags have called it "Feith-based intelligence", since much of that intelligence and information has now been proven to be utterly false. At the beginning of May, Franklin was arrested by the FBI for the passing of classified documents to two AIPAC staffers, who were then to pass them to Israel. The documents in question concerned Iran.

One of the two newly-indicted AIPACers isn't just anybody. Steve Rosen, 63, is the man who built AIPAC into the $40 million dollar Capitol Hill powerhouse it is today. Buried in a Washington Post profile of AIPAC from May 19 is the skinny on Rosen as the power behind the scenes at AIPAC. Said the Post:

"For more than two decades, Rosen has been a mainstay of AIPAC and the architect of the group's ever-increasing clout. Though Rosen was listed below Executive Director Howard Kohr on AIPAC's organizational chart, people familiar with AIPAC's history say that Kohr is a protege of Rosen's and got that job with his help. Kohr declined to be interviewed about Rosen. 'He [Rosen] is a quiet guy,' said M.J. Rosenberg, director of policy analysis for the Israel Policy Forum, another pro-Israel group, and a former AIPAC employee. 'But everyone knows he's the brains behind the outfit.'"

Now, just what is AIPAC, you may well ask? AIPAC is the enforcer of the knee-jerk support for the Israeli government which characterizes the political and governing classes in this country, -- Israel is the real third rail of American politics: touch it with criticism, no matter how carefully couched, and you die. Both the Democratic and Republican parties fall all over themselves to kiss AIPAC's boots -- because AIPAC and its well-filled war-chest helps make sure they toe the line on Israel, and has been responsible for the defeat of a significant number of politicians over the years who dared to criticize Israeli policies. Earlier this year, AIPAC played a major role in destroying the candidacy of Tim Roemer for chairman of the DNC. There's an in-depth, critical profile of AIPAC by RightWeb's Michael Flynn that gives an in-depth look at AIPAC's arm-and-leg-breaking political style. And the newly indicted Rosen is The Man Behind the Curtain. Even though he formally resigned from AIPAC, the organization is paying his legal bills, and Rosen is still pulling the strings.

The reason for putting some daylight between Rosen and AIPAC is that the puissant political arm-twister is deathly afraid it will be forced to register as a foreign lobby, as the Jewish weeily The Forward reported earlier this year. Americans don't like the sight of their elected officials pocketing campaign cash from foreign governments, and AIPAC fears being forced to register formally as a lobbyist for Israel would thus diminish their clout on Capitol Hill. Bush won't make AIPAC register, and the spinless Democratic Congressional leadership won't lead the charge to make them do so either. But today's indictments of string-puller Rosen and his AIPAC colleague for spying on the U.S. gives progressives who want to see a peaceful, two-state, land-for-peace solution between Israel and Palestine a strategic opening to press loudly for AIPAC's formal shil registration as a shil for the government that built the Israeli Wall of Shame. It's a measure long past due.

Yeah... Harman may be just a horsehead in the bed... A warning shot to other guilty politicians. But she is also a fool if she thinks we are buying any of her faux outrage.

Yesterday, the Blogosphere erupted with Jeff Stein's CQ article suggesting that Jane Harman may have interfered in the prosecution of alleged Israeli spies in exchange for a committee chairmanship in the 2006 congress. The information was based upon leaks from wiretaps, according to the CQ article, of a "suspected Israeli agent". Today the NY Times adds new information that should send a chill down everyone's spine. The wiretapped "suspected Israeli agent" was working closely with California Billionaire, Haim Saban, a Major Democratic Donor. This whole affair is starting to smell rotten....

[update] I think that this Think Progress headline says a lot about the stupidity of Harman's position:

Harman: 'I'm Just Very Disappointed' NSA Wiretapped Me, After I Voted To Allow Them To

Cross Dressing Cult Leader Gives BJs to GOP Members

The Neo-Fascist monotheist cult leader, Janet Porter, gave Barrack Junk to every single one of'em. He may be post-op now. But he is still the same man under all of that makeup and those clothes. The cult leader that was foreseen by a pedophile fortune teller at a republican orgy in '89.

Hey... I get email too!

There are a whole Lott-a nuts out there these days. How can anyone take these people seriously? Oh, wait! We don't...

McConnell Exits Stage Right...

When he says this:

"We're all concerned about the fact that the very wealthy and the very poor, the most and least educated, and a majority of minority voters, seem to have more or less stopped paying attention to us. And we should be concerned that, as a result of all this, the Republican Party seems to be slipping into a position of being more of a regional party than a national one," McConnell told the gathering.

And this is part of why you are not only a regional party, now, but your regional party is in serious jeopardy of becoming the 3rd party in this two party country. A country that no longer needs nor wants neoconservatives, far right wing authoritarians, obstructionists, childish name calling mud slingers, warmongers, haters, the criminals and the corrupt. We are done with all of the epic failures and political theatrics that the GOP brings to the political stage.

The problem is not that people stopped listening to you.

It is that they started listening to what you say and comparing it to what you do. And it is because they started looking at those actions and matched them up to the actual results that they are living through right now.

The real problem with your party is that people actually started paying attention. And it will continue to be the problem with the GOP as long as the the GOP continues to do what they have already done before. And, so far, they are.

Take a bow Mitch McConnell...

This could very well be the GOP's final curtain call on the national stage. And you, Mitch McConnell, had a grand part in it all...

[update] The Existentialist Cowboy gives a great rundown of some of the many reasons for the GOP's problems. But, as you can see, the GOP just does not get it..

Kristol Loses His NY Times Welfare

h/t to suburban guerrilla, The ever wrong and eternally warmongering neoconservative Bill Kristol's wingnut welfare provided by the NY Times runs out. I guess they were tired of him making the Times a punching bag?

I have edited out all of the right wing junk and neoconservative spew to condense the full piece down to the only important information - coincidentally, it is the only factual information - contained in Kristol's final NY Times column that you need to know:

"This is William Kristol’s last column."

May he get all of that he truly deserves in life.

I wonder what tired, old right wing media gas bag will replace him? Or will they pick a screecher from the over fertilized - and full of it - young republiCON crops?

[update] Sadly, I must note that Kristol will be peddling a monthly pile of crap at the WaPo. If we are lucky he will explode having to hold it in that long. Note to Kristol's friends: Keep a lot of baby wipes handy if get near him, just in case.

This hour has 22 minutes...

22 minutes into the Obama presidency and the failed wingnuts are already blaming Obama for Iraq?

I believe you'll find Goldfarb and his disciples of extreme ignorance among these Americans:

We have yet begun to fight...

I was over at The Field Negro's Blog - reading how he was going to live up to his promise of running through the streets of Philly nekid if Obama won - Anyways, I did have a little suggestion for him:

"To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high."

It is an inscription on the wall of the dressing room of the Montreal Canadiens and is often used as rallying call for sports teams up north. It is taken from the poem "In Flanders Fields".

You might want to consider carrying a torch on your run, my friend. There is a lot of talk kicking around the news and the Blogs about the historic nature of this day. How this is such a huge positive change. But there is still a lot to do, and a lot of different battles that we all have ahead of us.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields

The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders where war casualties had been buried and thus became a symbol of Remembrance Day. The poem is part of Remembrance Day solemnities in Allied countries which contributed troops to World War I, particularly in countries of the British Empire that did so.

The line is appropriate for everyone, liberal activists pushing for change, minorities and Black activists that still have a long way to go... Everyone that has been on the outside looking in at the dismal failures in American politics.

Yeah. I am stoked for change. And I have a dream too.

The real fights are just about to begin and the real challenge is to keep the torch burning as we move forward.

This is the end of the bush years. The worst president in the history of the USA.

The end of the worst government ever to enter into power in Washington, D.C.. Power hungry fools with a reckless disregard for the needs of the people.

The end of the of the neoconservative reign of terror. Modern day Jacobins that use terror to instill fear in the American population.

We have begun the change. And started to live up to the possibilities of so many dreams.

But it is, still, only the beginning.



[update] Via joesaho at MLN, How appropriate for this post:

The Bushes Depart | 12:56 p.m. The helicopter steps are folded up. The blade begins to rotate. The Obamas and Bidens are standing still, holding each other’s hands, as they watch the helicopter rev up. We now have lift-off; the Bushes have left the Capitol at 12:55 — almost half an hour ahead of time. The Obamas wave.

The helicopter is swinging out over the Mall first instead of heading directly to Andrews. Surely the Bushes can’t hear the crowd below, but the chant is one that sports fans jeer to the opposing team: “Na Na Na Na/Na Na Na Na/Hey Hey Hey/Good-bye.”

A cheer that started at the old Forum in Montreal. :)

Modern History - Lieberman's Betrayal of Progressives

Think Progress has provided an in depth study of Lieberman's betrayal of progressives. The information will not come as a shock to anyone on the left that has followed him closely and recognized this unholy alliance early on as Lieberman pledged his allegiance to the warmongering neoconservative whack jobs and their likudnik/AIPAC allies. Lieberman's story is a bizarre combination of apologist for their neoconservative failures and an accomplice in covering up their crimes.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Lieberman's self-propelled decent to this hellish low, please adjust your internal thermostat in order to keep your cool as you read because, in reality, this is not simply a chronicle of the betrayal of progressives, and the left in general, but of Joseph I. Lieberman's betrayal of America and some of the most basic principles she was founded upon.

“I’m a Democrat with a 35-year record of fighting for progressive causes, for the middle class, for civil rights, for women’s rights, for human rights and a lot more. I voted with my Senate Democratic colleagues 90 percent of the time.” — Joe Lieberman, 7/6/06

“I want Democrats to be back in the majority in Washington and elect a Democratic president in 2008.” — Joe Lieberman, 7/7/06

While Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has fought for progressive policies in the past — such as protecting the environment and expanding civil rights — his recent record demonstrates that he’s a progressive no more. As this report documents, Lieberman has embraced the right wing on far more than foreign policy. In fact, he has betrayed progressive principles on a variety of domestic issues. As he has lurched to the right, Lieberman has actively worked to undermine the progressive agenda.

CONTENTS

– Undermined Progressives

– Domestic Policy

– On Leading The Homeland Security Committee: ‘We Don’t Like Investigating.’

– On Energy: Drill Baby, Drill

– On Taxes: ‘I Think It’s Wrong To Raise Any Taxes Now’


– On Health Care: Supported McCain’s Tax On Employer Health Care

– On Social Security: ‘Individual Control…Has To Happen.’

– On Alberto Gonzales: He ‘Deserves Our Appreciation’

– On The Christian-Right: Defended Pastor Hagee

– Campaigned Against Progressive Candidates

– National Security

– On Torture: ‘The Person Is In No Real Danger.’

– On Terrorism: Fear-mongering With The Radical Right.

– On Iran: Bomb Iran

– On Syria: Bomb Syria?

– On Iraq: U.S. ‘Did The Right Thing’

Read the entire piece here...

2nd best use of shoes I've seen...

Calling someone a dog and showing them the soles of your shoes - especially up close and personal like - are kind of like ultimate insults in their culture. An Iraqi journalist tosses several insults at Bush on his farewell to Iraq tour:



And ya want your So Called Liberal Media? There it is in Iraq... 99% of our right wing corporate owned and controlled media don't have the balls to editorialize like that. Most of them have problems just telling the plain truth.

(h/t Booman for the story and bumblebums for the MSNBC video)

[update] Via Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors:

Our own Scissorhead Laura has a great idea.

Awesome idea!

I had thought that holding a shoe in the air would be a great at demonstrations. One of those few things that the Preznit’s SS wouldn’t take from you as you enter a place where he is scheduled to mangle the English language.

“Bare your sole for Bush!”

But Laura's idea is much more practical...

A lot of people seem to be thinking the same thing here: "He’s got great reflexes for an old dude."

You would too if your BFF was the shotgun wielding neoconservative cheney. Bush is lucky the irate Iraqi wasn't playing horseshoes with hand grenades...

We All Live In A Flying Submarine

This idea is about as surreal as a Beatles movie:

Last spring my dog Shady and I were walking across the bridge over Pleasure House Creek when I heard a disturbance in the water. I looked down and saw a Great Blue Heron breaking the water's surface. The heron flicked the water from its wings, flapped them, and went flying down the creek about two feet above the surface.

Impressive, I thought. Boy, wouldn't the weapons procurement nimrods at the Pentagon like to get their mitts on technology that could do that?

Thus it was that I reacted with both amusement and horror to an email notice I received in October from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) offering federal grant money for "a feasibility study and experiments to prove out the possibility of making an aircraft that can maneuver underwater."

In other words, DARPA wants to pay someone to come up with a phony baloney argument that says it's possible to make a flying submarine.

And Jeff Huber over at Pen and Sword says that DARPA only wants to spend $3,000,000,000.00 to come up with the argument that it can be done...

Kind of sums up this countries priorities under the last 8 years of failed Neoconservative terrorist stewardship. They live in a drug induced fantasy world - their drug of choice is power - of reckless and senseless stupidity with ideas that are aimlessly leading to nowhere. Idiotic ideas that need to be sunk because they will never fly in the real world. Never mind that they are wasting money on a "solution to problem" that doesn't exist...

Senator Pat Leahy Makes Me Miss Vermont

Only because if I still lived there I would not have a Neoconservative piece of Lieberjunk as a Senator:

Today, Daily Kos diarist terjeanderson caught an interview on Vermont Public Radio with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), during which the senator broke from the pack and said that Lieberman deserved to lose his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee:

I’m one who does not feel that somebody should be rewarded with a major chairmanship after doing what he did. … I felt that some of the attacks that he was involved in against Sen. Obama, whom I did support — I was one of the first in the Congress to support him — I thought they went way beyond the pale. I thought that they were not fair. I thought they were not legitimate. I thought that they perpetuated some of these horrible myths that were being run about Sen. Obama.

I would feel that, had I done something similar, I would not be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the next Congress.

Listen here:

A new Research 2000/DailyKos poll shows that Lieberman is increasingly unpopular among his constituents. Sixty-one percent disapprove of his Senate performance. Among his Democratic constituents, Lieberman’s approval rating stands at just 22 percent.

It seems like Senator Bernie Sanders agrees:

"Appointing someone to a major post who led the opposition to everything we are fighting for is not 'change we can believe in,'" Sanders continued. "I very much hope that Senator Lieberman stays in the Democratic caucus and is successful in regaining the confidence of those whom he has disappointed. This is not a time, however, in which he should be rewarded with a major committee chairmanship."

Nutmeggers seem to agree with this, as evidenced by the most recent poll numbers:

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 11/11-13. Likely voters. MoE 4% (6/30-7/2 results)

Do you approve or disapprove of the job Joe Lieberman is doing as U.S. senator?

Approve 36 (45)
Disapprove 61 (43)

If the 2012 election for U.S. Senate were held today would you to reelect Joe Lieberman would you consider voting for another candidate or would you vote to replace Lieberman?

Reelect 35
Consider Someone Else 18
Replace 48

Brutal. It seems that the people of Connecticut don't like the Republican version of Lieberman, the one that trashed Democrats on the campaign trail with John McCain, the one that spoke at the RNC convention, the one that failed to hold the Bush Administration accountable in Congress, and the one that pretended Katrina never happened.

Are you getting that, Joe? Et tu, Chris Dodd? Connecticut overwhelmingly disapproves of Joe Lieberman's warmongering and Neoconservative ways.

If I were a bankrupt Neoconservative

Not just morally bankrupt, but having lost all reigns of power...

Staring down the likelihood of losing my last well placed chickenhawk, Liebercon, at a point in time when all of my pitiful warmongering ideals were being shunned by anyone that wanted to be viewed as respectable...

Desperate to keep the fear alive for the sake of power...

What if Syria never had any nuclear program? What if my bestest warmongering friends forever gave me an ace in the hole to pull out at just the right time?

If I were a bankrupt Neoconservative I would never let the fear end. Because that would be the end of my reign of terror. I want you to think about this:

Lynching is sometimes justified by its supporters as the administration of justice (in a social-moral sense, not in law) without the delays and inefficiencies inherent to the legal system; in this way it echoes the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, which was justified by the claim:

"Terror is nothing other than
prompt, severe, inflexible justice."

Hey! It's not like anyone in our government would ever encourage this kind of terrorizing behavior with its own actions. Especially during an election... Right? And it is not like anyone in our government would find ways to demonize impotent pawns in order to create their own wars of choice... Right?

Fear has always been their tool. Lies and deception are their only game. These modern day Jacobins, the Neoconservatives, know no other way.

The "traditional" conservative Claes G. Ryn has argued that neoconservatives are "a variety of neo-Jacobins." Ryn maintains that true conservatives deny the existence of a universal political and economic philosophy and model that is suitable for all societies and cultures, and believe that a society's institutions should be adjusted to suit its culture, while Neo-Jacobins

are attached in the end to ahistorical, supranational principles that they believe should supplant the traditions of particular societies. The new Jacobins see themselves as on the side of right and fighting evil and are not prone to respecting or looking for common ground with countries that do not share their democratic preferences. (Ryn 2003: 387)

Further examining the relationship between Neoconservatism and moral rhetoric, Ryn argues that

Neo-Jacobinism regards America as founded on universal principles and assigns to the United States the role of supervising the remaking of the world. Its adherents have the intense dogmatic commitment of true believers and are highly prone to moralistic rhetoric. They demand, among other things, "moral clarity" in dealing with regimes that stand in the way of America's universal purpose. They see themselves as champions of "virtue." (p. 384).

Thus, according to Ryn, neoconservatism is analogous to Bolshevism: in the same way that the Bolsheviks wanted to destroy established ways of life throughout the world to replace them with communism, the neoconservatives want to do the same, only imposing free-market capitalism and American-style liberal democracy instead of socialism.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, had the following to say in a December, 2005 interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel:

"They are not new conservatives. They're Jacobins. Their predecessor is French Revolution leader Maximilien Robespierre."

I, for one, do not trust the media to be a fair arbiter of this kind of information. They have been prone to do the bidding of these Neoconservatives time and time again. The Neoconservatives have known this day was coming. The day when they would be cornered with nothing left to do but lash out at anyone and everyone.

So... If I were a bankrupt Neoconservative, would I ask my Likudnik brothers in everlasting wars to deliver a dirty bomb, one that would leave uranium traces on a target of my choice, to an impotent enemy in order to keep the fear alive?

Deep down you already know my answer!

And I would be laughing at you as you coward in fear, yet again, and were lead like lambs to the slaughter in my newest, greatest war for freedumb.

Something I thought I'd never see...

And NOPE! I am not talking about the millions of people supporting a black man for president - even though there are some seriously bigoted people still out there screeching in America, times have changed enough that I figured that it could very likely happen in my lifetime... Just a matter of the right candidate to answer the call - and I am not talking about the many conservatives I know - Republican, Indy and unaffiliated - voting for a Democratic candidate. That happens all the time. It happened even more so in the last few years as people have watched the "Conservative party": bring in huge deficits; fail in one war and in one illegal invasion and occupation; admit to illegally spying on Americans; tear down an economy with deregulated bank failures, a mortgage crisis brought on by the "ownership society" they extol, unemployment surges from companies shutting down and made even Joe and Suzy Sixpack's income shrink faster than choice for women and civil rights.

Nope. I am not talking about that.
I am talking about this:

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

What do Conservatives think of John McCain? 2

Via HuffPo, Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy let the truth slip out about McCain's choice of Sarah Palin:

Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and former John McCain adviser, Time columnist, and MSNBC contributor Mike Murphy were caught on tape disparaging John McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate.

"It's over," Noonan said.

When Chuck Todd asked her if this was the most qualified woman the Republicans could nominate, Noonan responded, "The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives. Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and that's not what they're good at, they blow it."

Murphy characterized the choices as "cynical" and "gimmicky."

Can you blame them for saying that after a few days of Palin being exposed for amateur politician and major league scandalized piece of republican failure that she really was? Even many in the neoconservative wet set are repulsed by McCain's sheer, utter and irrefutable incompetence in running his campaign.

There is little doubt as to what turned the misfiring John McCain campaign into a comedy of errors.

McCain's Good News

Tengrain over at Mock, Paper, Scissors must have been sleepless last night thinking over the fact that this is as good as it will ever get for everyone with the neocon McCain...

Go on over and check it out.

Glen Beck is a Soup Salad Sandwich

Glen Beck's thought process is a freakin' mess:

While interviewing Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) on his CNN Headline News show last night, right-wing talker Glenn Beck declared that there’s “nobody in Washington that anybody trusts anymore.” Saying that he’d “like oversight” of the money Congress is allocating for the bailout of the financial system, Beck suggested Gen. David Petraeus would be the perfect person to provide the oversight:

BECK: thought of it, Senator. I`d like oversight, but here`s who I would like to provide the oversight for the people who are overseeing this mess, and that`s General Petraeus. I would like to see somebody bring General Petraeus in and have him sit there with all the stars on his shoulders and say, “Ok now, explain again how you didn`t create this mess?”

Now... Let me think real hard on that one... OK?

Black market arms deals...

The attacks were no mystery. What puzzled Turkish police was the weapons' origin. Glocks are high-quality sidearms, but by last year they had practically become common street weapons in Turkey. More than 1,000 had been taken from criminals, guerrillas, terrorists and assassins all over the country, and authorities believed tens of thousands more had found their way onto the black market

There are many more where those came from. At least three U.S. government agencies are now investigating the massive "disappearance" and diversion of weapons Washington intended for Iraqi government forces that instead have spread to militants and organized gangs across the region. The potential size of the traffic is stunning. A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office last month showed that since 2004, some 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols, bought with U.S. money for Iraqi security forces, have gone missing.

snip

Major U.S. arms transfers began when Gen. David Petraeus was commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command—Iraq (MNSTC-I), better known as Minsticky. Its mission was to train, arm and organize Iraq's military and police forces, but the Iraqis' weapons came via the State Department, and the supply line was actually run by private contractors.

Not just no but HELL NO!

McCain Playing Hide The VP Candidate

John McCain's poorly devised campaign plan to keep Sarah Palin hidden from the press and out of the debates revealed:

John McCain, his stepping stone wife
and Chris Shays with their pet neocon and
foreign policy poodle Joe Lieberman

try to hide the new Palin crap here...

Go here and get a mixed bag of the best the Blogosphere has to offer as the real news breaks.

Dems Dumping Joe Neocon Lieberman?

They are talking about kicking Connecticut Junior Senator Joe neocon Lieberman to the curb tonight:

Connecticut Democrats are considering a bid to force Sen. Joe Lieberman out of the party for speaking at the Republicans' convention and backing GOP presidential nominee John McCain.

The party scheduled a debate Wednesday night on a resolution that would censure Lieberman and ask the veteran politician to resign from the Democratic Party.

Lieberman was re-elected to the Senate as an independent after losing the Democratic primary in 2006 to businessman Ned Lamont, but while he calls himself an "independent Democrat" in the Senate he remains a registered Democrat and has said he has no plans to change his affiliation.

According to the AP:

The state Democratic party has scheduled a debate tonight on a resolution that would censure Lieberman and ask him to resign from the Democratic Party.

One supporter of the resolution says Lieberman's GOP convention speech, in which he praised McCain and criticized Barack Obama, convinced her that state Democrats need to take a stand.

It is unclear if there is enough support to finally oust the neoconservative bush boot licker but at least they are finally talking about straightening out the Connecticut Democratic party.

John McCain, his stepping stone wife
and Chris Shays with their pet neocon and
foreign policy poodle Joe Lieberman

[update] CT News Junkie has more on this... And CT Local Politics has nothing to say. (JK Genghis)

[update deux] Via the hard working CT News Junkie, it appears they left it at a "Censure" for now. Wasted opportunity to do the right thing.

“Good politics is not about me, it’s about we,” Blondin said explaining her decision to table the resolution.

McCain VS Palin - GOP bumble-rumble

Via BarbinMD at dKos, watch the two GOP wingnuts, John neocon McCain and Sarah secessionist Palin, unwittingly beat the crap out of each other:

Prepare yourself for the greatest ideological match-up of the century! No, it's not Obama versus McCain, it's McCain versus Palin. Let's get ready to ruuummmbbbllle...

This was John McCain, late last year on why he was qualified to be the president:

I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time.

And here is Sarah Palin last night on why she is ready to be a 72-year old heartbeat away from the presidency:

Charlie, again, we've got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time. It is for no more politics as usual and somebody's big, fat resume maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment, where, yes, they've had opportunities to meet heads of state.

So there you have it. The ultimate he said, she said. John McCain explained why Sarah Palin isn't qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, and Sarah Palin explained why John McCain doesn't represent change, just more of the same old politics as usual.

On 911 - Remembering the McCain neoCON

It is 911... And 7 years later it is still being pumped out as some kind of fear mongering neocon campaign wet dream and used as a GOP trademarked slogan in order to instill fear and faux patriotism in the populace. While less and less people by the "fear! FEAR! FEAR!" campaign anymore it is important to remember why we have not been able to catch bin Laden. The clusterfuck known as Iraq. The GOP, and John McCain in particular, have been using 911 to justify an illegal invasion and occupation since before it even happened.

On the morning of the 9/11, just moments after the World Trade Center collapsed from the terrorist strikes, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) went on television and immediately began focusing the nation’s attention on Iraq. In an interview with CBS’ Dan Rather on 9/11, McCain said:

To be honest with you, Dan, I never thought that an operation of this sophistication and size would take place. I just never did. But I don’t think there’s any doubt that there are countries — Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea and others — who we know engage in proliferation of — of capabilities and, from time to time, involve themselves in state-sponsored terrorism. But never did we imagine on a scale such as this.

The next day, on 9/12, McCain reiterated the point in an interview with Chris Matthews. “It isn’t just Afghanistan,” he said, “we’re talking about Syria, Iraq, Iran, perhaps North Korea, Libya and others.”

Just a few weeks later — on Oct. 9, 2001 — McCain narrowed his focus, arguing that Iraq was “obviously” next:

PAULA ZAHN: And as you know, Senator, the U.S. and Great Britain notified the U.N. Security Council yesterday that they reserve the right to strike against other countries in this campaign. What countries are we looking at?

MCCAIN: Well, I think very obviously Iraq is the first country, but there are others — Syria, Iran, the Sudan, who have continued to harbor terrorist organizations and actually assist them.

On Oct. 18, 2001, McCain told David Letterman, “the second phase is Iraq” while linking Iraq to the anthrax attacks.

I'll remember the dead and their surviving family and friends in a quiet and respectful manner that they deserve. I'll never forget the Middle Eastern Terrorists that did this, neither will I forget the foreign policy failures that created the hate in those countries. Policies like pimping illegal invasions and occupations. And I will NEVER EVER forget the kind of people, people like John McCain and other Bush administration neonconservative minions, that are still pushing for more of this kind of foreign policy failure.

As a tribute to some of the real heroes on 911, the policemen and firemen that risked or gave up their lives on 911, you won't see pictures of the twin towers here. No pictures of the death and destruction of that day. Nor will you see any of the flag waving testimonies to faux patriotism. I would rather point you to a local program that the fire department runs as a service to the youth of the community. A testimony to the fact that these men and women are every day heroes, not just when faced with the adversity of a tragic accident or dangerous rescues.